Sunday, November 18, 2007

Pierre's Living Witness is a Pentecostal congregation on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard. Founded in 1981 by Elder Louis Harrell, the church struggled in its early years in a desolate neighborhood.

"We'd attend church there, and often we'd come out and find our batteries missing and our cars had been vandalized," he said. Streetwalkers occasionally propositioned church members; drug dealers plied their trade in plain view.

"Pastor Harrell really got angry with the devil and said we've got to do something about it," Pierre said.

First they brought their evangelizing to the street. "Pretty soon, like roaches do when you turn on the light, they began to scurry," he said.

Then the church began organizing programs for the neighborhood, starting with a simple emergency food pantry.

Soon enough, Living Witness founded a residential drug rehabilitation program for men called the Nehemiah Restoration Center.

Public money pays for clinical counselors and case managers, Pierre said. At the same time, the thrust of the program is explicitly Christian.

If Alcoholics Anonymous has its 12-step program that urges alcoholics to acknowledge their helplessness to an unnamed higher power, however they understand it, Living Witness' Christ-centered program is based on 15 biblical principles, Pierre said.

The program does not work for everyone; indeed, some drop out repeatedly and seek re-entry, Pierre said.

When successful, though, "at the end of the program, you don't just have somebody who's off of drugs: You have somebody who's been introduced to Christ.

June 29, 1910 - March 5, 1999Rev. Avery C. Alexander was an important leader in the struggle for civil rights for black Louisianians. He was born Avery Caesar Alexander on June 29, 1910 in Terrebone Parish, LA. By 1927, seven years after his father's death, the family relocated to New Orleans. He gained his high school diploma in 1939 from Gilbert Academy where he had taken night classes. He studied at several universities and graduated from Union Baptist Theological Seminary. He was ordained into the ministry in 1944.A member of the NAACP, Rev. Alexander traveled statewide participating in voter registration drives in the years before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed. In New Orleans, he helped to organize several boycotts against white businesses to hire blacks for jobs above the "broom and mop" level. He also led a successful boycott against New Orleans Public Service, Inc. to hire the first black bus drivers.

Rev. Alexander participated in marches with the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., including the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama and the first and second marches on Washington. He also was involved in sit-ins to integrate lunch counters all over New Orleans. In one incident, during a sit-in being held at the eating facilities at City Hall, he was arrested and dragged by the heels up the steps from the basement of that building. Films of that event became the story of the day nationwide.

In 1975, Rev. Alexander was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives (Democrat, District 93) holding that office until his death. During his life he was also a real estate broker, insurance agent and longshoreman, becoming the manager of the longshoreman's welfare system from 1958-1962. In 1990, he established the Church of All People, a non-denominational ministry.

He continued his fight for civil rights until his death at the age of 89 on March 5, 1999.

Longhair's career in music began in the 1930s, dancing for tips. He learned guitar and piano and began to take music seriously when he found he could get out of work by playing piano for his fellow members of the Civilian Conservation Corps. He also worked as a boxer, cook, and professional card player.

In the late 1940s, he sat in on piano at the Caledonia Club while Dave Bartholomew's band was taking a break. He was an immediate hit and Bartholomew, later famous as Fats Domino's bandleader and collaborator, was fired. The band all had long hair and were dubbed Professor Longhair and the Four Hairs.

He began recording the following year. His signature song, "Mardi Gras in New Orleans" (still the theme song of New Orleans Mardi Gras) was recorded in 1949... His career greatly slowed down in the 1960s, with "Big Chief" his biggest hit. He returned to card playing and even worked as a janitor in a record store until located by Allison Miner, Parker Dinkins and Quint Davis, who rehabilitated him and prepared him for a performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The 1971 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival marked a comeback, and he began making a series of critically acclaimed albums throughout the 1970s.

He was the headliner at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1973, and in 1975, Paul McCartney flew him to play a private party on the Queen Mary.

He died of a heart attack in 1980, and was subsequently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The famed New Orleans night spot, Tipitina's, is named after one of his songs. Albert Goldman recorded Longhair at Tipitina's in 1978.

Mahalia Jackson was one of America's greatest gospel singers. She was born in New Orleans on October 26, 1911 to Charity Clark, a laundress and maid, and Johnny Jackson, a Baptist preacher, barber and longshoreman. She attended McDonogh School No. 24 until the eighth grade.

Influenced by the music of the Sanctified Church she began singing at the young age of four in the children's choir of Plymouth Rock Baptist Church.

In 1927, Mahalia migrated to Chicago and while working as a maid, laundress and date packer studied beauty culture at Madam C. J. Walker's and Scott Institute of Beauty Culture. She opened a beauty shop after this training. When the director of the choir at Greater Salem Baptist Church in Chicago heard her sing she became the choir's first soloist. Her beautiful voice made her popular.

During the 1930s, she toured the "storefront church circuit" singing to congregations. Jackson bridged the gap between the sacred and the secular in her performances, often using scriptures to justify her use of hand clapping and stomping while singing.

The next two decades found Mahalia recording songs and touring the United States and Europe. She became closely associated with the civil rights movement during the 1960s often singing at benefits for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the boycotters and student sit-ins.

Jackson died of heart failure at the age of sixty in Chicago. She was honored with funerals in Chicago and New Orleans and is buried in Providence Memorial Park in Metairie.

November 2, 1914-June 25, 1978Abraham Lincoln Davis was a founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the first African American city councilman in New Orleans. He was born in Bayou Goula, Louisiana and moved to New Orleans in 1930 to live with a sister and attend high school. Reverend Davis graduated from McDonogh 35 High School, received his B. A. degree from Leland College and his theological degree from Union Baptist Theological Seminary. He became the pastor of New Zion Baptist Church in 1935 where he became known as the Rev. A. L. Davis. He served as pastor of New Zion for forty-three years.

In 1957, Rev. Davis and a group of civil rights activists met at New Zion to organize the SCLC. The group chose as its first president Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Davis became its first vice president. In 1975, he was elected to the City Council. Rev. A. L. Davis died at the age of 63 of pancreatic cancer and is buried in Bayou Goula.

March 18, 1880-February 20, 1970Mrs. Gertrude Pocte Geddes-Willis was one of the first American female funeral directors in New Orleans. In 1940, Mrs. Willis was the founder and president of two corporations, Gertrude Geddes Willis Life Insurance Company and Gertrude Geddes Willis Funeral Home. Mrs. Geddes-Willis was a lifetime member of the NAACP and the YWCA and a member of several benevolent societies and professional organizations. She was also active in the Ladies Auxillary Council of the Knights of Peter Claver.

One of her special interests was youth development. Throughout her career her entrepreneurship gained the respect of both local and national business leaders.

Mrs. Willis died on February 20, 1970. She is buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 3.

A native of Donaldsonville, La., Porter grew up in New Orleans and attended Straight College. He did photographic work for the Louisiana Weekly and for Black Data Weekly and also served as the local photographer for such national publications as Ebony, Jet, and Black Enterprise. He also owned Porter's Photo News. Among his subjects over the years were celebrities such as President John F. Kennedy, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Halie Selassie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Jackie Robinson, Joe Louis, and Jesse Owens. His work documents the full range of African American activity in the Crescent City, from social occasions and sporting events to political rallies and civil rights protests.

Porter was a member of a number of local organizations, including the NAACP, the Urban League, and the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club. He was a veteran of World War II, having seen action at the Battle of the Bulge under the command of General George Patton. Marion Porter died of cancer in New Orleans on November 10, 1983 at the age of 74.

In 1995 Porter's widow, Charlene Richard, entrusted local photographer Eric Waters with the surviving inventory of his negatives and photos. Waters, through Ebon Images, Inc., had plans to publish a book of Porter's work, to create a traveling exhibit of his photographs, and to establish the Marion Porter Photography Workshop to support and encourage the development of young black photographers. Eric Waters and Ebon Images, Inc., however, are no longer involved with the Porter photographs.

Waters, in a grant proposal to the city of New Orleans, described the Porter photographs as... an essential testimony to the history of Black people and Black life in New Orleans for the period 1930-1980. Porter was blessed with an eye that captured not only the images of a photograph but also the spirit and message of the moment. He was a people person, possessed of a wealth of knowledge and contacts who had a generous commitment to Black people. He was an authentic man with no pretense and a man of strong commitment. He touched many people and captured telling moments in their lives on film. The value of his body of work in documenting a half century of Black life in New Orleans is beyond estimate.

Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained.--Helen Keller

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TRUTH-FORCE ('SATYAGRAHA') AND THE FUTURE OF THE EARTH

The root meaning of 'Satyagraha', according to Mahatma Gandhi, was the force of truth or the soul-force that underlay the philosophy and practice of non-violent resistance. This force could move mountains and set men free.

Today, the challenges of life ask us to more firmly hold onto the force of truth within us so that we may stand aligned with the peoples of the world who are suffering, and with the earth itself that is in great need.

"WE ARE NOT OKAY"

NEW ORLEANS 2 YEARS LATER

A LONG WAY HOME - FIVE STORIES IN THE MIDST OF HUNDREDS OF ELDERLY RESIDENTS IN KATRINA-TORN NEW ORLEANSPHOTOGRAPHS AND AUDIO FROM GENARO MOLINA OF THE LA TIMES:Charles TaylorIn the Lower Ninth Ward, 81-year-old Charles Taylor has taken matters into his own hands and is rebuilding his home. After going through chemotherapy and radiation for stomach cancer in Mississippi, he felt well enough to make his way back to New Orleans to fix up his home. Narrated gallery

Joyce Boudousquie and Tommy Bilich Though some of the elderly are forced to go it alone, others have banded together. Joyce Boudousquie, 73, and Tommy Bilich, 75, struck up a friendship that Katrina could not tear apart. “Some neighbor of mine who is very close to me introduced me to Tommy and we became friends,” Joyce said.Narrated gallery

Joyce Simms Woods Joyce Simms Wood, 77, is surrounded by the few possessions that Hurricane Katrina did not steal from her. She’s been living in a FEMA trailer with dogs Ricky and Spreckles as her only companions, along with a TV that’s never turned off. “Everybody wants to go home, but I’m not home,” she said.Narrated gallery

Andrew Frick An ailing Andrew Frick, 84, bides his time in a FEMA trailer park while waiting for construction on his home in St. Bernard Parish to wrap up. Memories of his beloved wife, who passed away last year after 46 years of marriage, have sustained him through the rough patches.Narrated gallery

Juliette and John Allen Juliette Allen, 64, visits the area where her house once stood in the Lower Ninth, now a wide patch of dirt. She and husband John, 74, plan to return. Although they live in a small, roach-infested home in the Lower Garden District, Juliette counts her blessings to be in New Orleans. Narrated gallery

WANT TO DO SOMETHING TO HELP?

Each of the following ads seek much needed help and are not asking for a lot of commitment. A 'burst' of help is needed...

Desperately Seeking Donations

We are a community advocacy non-profit 501(c)3 agency assisting individuals with disabilities. We desperately need donations (cars...running, household items, or other things of value) to help fund our community-based program. Your donations will help individuals with disabilities find and develop income producing ventures to enhance their lives. Tax donation forms available.

Call Christopher or Sue at (504)366-8801.

BOOKS 2 PRISONERS NEEDS HELP MOVING/BUILDING

We are moving our program back to it's post K home.

We need help framing and hanging the walls, and them moving the stuff.

for more info go to http:// www.geocities.com/books2prisoners

Posted: December 27, 2007

HELP ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY THIS HOLIDAY...

...so I'm just a regular guy who heard a very sad thing on the radio. A soldier stationed in Baghdad said, "This is not America's war, this in only a soldiers war on TV some place far far away."

He's right. What sacrifices have I made...not many. Regardless of whether you agree or don't agree (and I don't, vehemently), the fact is those guys and gals are doing it and dying for it under the flag of our United States.

So this holiday season, my organization, Grass Matts, is going to find homes in New Orleans of active duty military personnel and go cut their grass, trim a hedge, or paint a mail box.

Whatever chore they may need for half a day or so. If anyone is interested in joining me to say thank you with deeds and not just words, please send me an email or give me a call.

FROM YOUR PLANETARY SISTER:Helping, I have found is not always about doing the big, grand things, often helping can be at it's most meaningful when we are helping another planetary brother and sister in meaningful ways for them. This could be something you can do, if you want to help, by setting the blog for Kamp Katrina and showing them how to upload future articles and pictures. Once it has been started and organized, MS Pearl could take it from there. Or, she could find someone else who would be willing to help in the next phase. Here's the thing I have found out about "helping" - it can feel like a small thing to you, whilst at the same time, feel like a very big thing to the recipient. PEACE.

NEW ORLEANS AREA HABITAT FOR HUMANITY SEEKS VOLUNTEERS!

Looking for a way to thank the thousands of volunteers from all over the world who have come to New Orleans to offer their support?New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity is seeking volunteers to help renovate Camp Hope, our volunteer housing in Saint Bernard. Help us make Camp Hope a comfortable, affordable, place to house our volunteers who have travelled from afar to help rebuild our city! For more information please contact Melissa Manuselis atvolunteer@habitat-nola.org.

Welcome...

This is a challenging blog to read... it is a difficult blog to write. The challenges and difficulties are even greater for those living the reality I that I document and photograph. After I have finished with a day of volunteering and photographing, I have the opportunity to walk away from the worst of the suffering. Not so for the families, the children, and the elderly, living in the toxic FEMA trailers, the abandoned houses, violence prone and devastated neighborhoods. Their suffering is ongoing and profound. I have never met stronger people of faith.

In our modern society I have noticed that many people spend an awful lot of time avoiding suffering and pain. That's what makes this blog so challenging to read and to "be with". I am sure there will be those who come to this site and wonder "why doesn't she post more positive things?" I am photographing and writing about the reality that I am witnessing and I understand that after a long day at work or trying to get through your own lives, how you would want to push the painful photo's and experiences I write about, away.

Here's the thing, if there weren't so many instances and experiences of suffering in New Orleans, I would have nothing to document or photograph. Yet there are far too many. And so, I write, I photograph, I pray, I cry, and I feel my profound helplessness as I witness the suffering and the hardships endured by local New Orleanians daily - many seeking to overcome (and overcoming) incredible difficulties and sufferation, whilst others succumb to fates of hopelessness, poverty, crime, and illiteracy.

This blog is my contribution to the beautiful people of New Orleans. When I have finished my work in New Orleans, I plan donate all the photo’s I have taken to an archive, as many of the photo‘s are anthropological in nature.

Everything on this site is meant to be shared, to inspire, and to help educate the millions in this country and elsewhere on this planet who believe that 2 years after Katrina and the levee breaks, that "everything must be okay now".

2 years after Katrina and the levee breaks, for thousands of New Orleanians, everything “is not okay“.

Volunteers are still needed. Especially people who can help rebuild. Even more so, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counselors, and spiritual counselors who are willing to come down and volunteer. Your help is still needed. Your financial donations are needed. Your love is needed. Your prayers and blessings are needed.

Spread the word. Feel free to use anything on this website. All I ask is that you credit what you use to this web-site so that people will be able to read more about what I have witnessed occurring to thousands still suffering in New Orleans.

IRAQ IS OUR VIETNAM AND NEW ORLEANS IS OUR BIRMINGHAM

"This moment in history is our generation’s lunch-counter moment -Iraq is our Vietnam and New Orleans is our Birmingham. Our generation could be the generation to defeat racism, poverty and war, but only if we come together as people of conscience."

REBUILDING-DISASTER RESOURCES: NOLA

"Do you ever see the rainbow in the sky? Do the colors fight amongst themselves? Then why should mankind fight amongst themselves trough their different colors? The whole world is a garden and all the people in it are his flowers and we all beautify this garden with all our different colors. As the rainbow is in the heavens so are we, as rainbow people in his earth. Jah made all colors so all things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful he made them all. Each little flower that opens, and each little bird that sings he made their glowing colors and he made their tiny wings. So remember: What does it profit a man to gain the whole word and lose his soul."

PERSONAL "PLANETARY" RESONANCE

IN GRATITUDE...

To the Volunteers - Who responded with love and kindness. Most of all, to those who came and gutted out the houses - a toxic job and a special job - as your work involved the 'gutting out' of lives, histories, and heritiages. Your work was so important in the first phase of the ongoing healing process. It is the volunteers - past, present, and future, who are an essential key to the rebuilding of trust and hope... by your very presence. Thank you.

To the People of the Heart - Thank you for trusting me and allowing me into your lives to share your pain with you. Most of all, for your smiles and waves as I drive through your communities, and a gratitude which is expressed in your hugs and words of love and blessings. To be seen with love through your eyes is to "be seen". I am humbled by your strength, courage, and dignity.

On Suffering and Compassion:

"The experience of woundedness has been a part of the history of souls on earth. The experience of wholeness is the 'new' history, whose pages are beginning to be written."
Julie Redstonewww.LightOmega.org